Walter Harland eBook

Author: Harriet S. Caswell

Release Date: May 8, 2005 [eBook #15799]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-us (us-ASCII)

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WALTER HARLAND

Or, Memories of the Past

by

H. S. CASWELL

Author of Clara Boscom; Earnest Harwood, etc.

1874

CHAPTER I.

Left entirely alone on a quiet afternoon, the unbroken
stillness which surrounded me, as well as the soft
haze which floats upon the atmosphere, in that most
delightful of all seasons, the glorious “Indian
Summer” of Eastern Canada, caused my thoughts
to wander far away into the dreamy regions of the
past, and many scenes long past, and almost forgotten,
passed in review before my mind’s eye on that
quiet afternoon. While thus musing the idea occurred
to me that there are few individuals, however humble
or obscure, whose life-history (if noted down) would
prove wholly without interest to others, in the form
of a book; and this thought caused me to form the
idea of noting down some passages from my own life—­as
they were on that day recalled to my mind. Like
the boy who dreamed a most remarkable dream and, when
asked to relate it, “didn’t know where
to begin,” so was I puzzled as to how I should
make a beginning for my story. But the incidents
of one particular day when I was about thirteen years
old were so vividly brought back to my mind, that
I have decided upon that day as a starting-point;
and now to my story.

“Where alive has that lazy, good-for-nothing
boy taken, himself off to now, I wonder, and the weeds
I left him to pull in the garden not half done yet;
but it’s just like him, as soon’s my back’s
turned to skulk off in this way. I’ll put
a stop to this work one of these days, see if I don’t.
Its likely he’s hiding in some out-of-the-way
corner with a book in his hand as usual.”
These and many other angry words came harshly to my
ears, on that June afternoon now so long ago.
I was seated in the small room over the kitchen which
was appropriated to my use in the dwelling of Farmer
Judson, where I was employed as “chore boy,”
or, in other words, the boy of all work.